(Quebec) The three members of the Parti Québécois (PQ) made history on Tuesday by entering the Blue Room of the National Assembly without having previously taken the oath to the British crown.
They were able to enter the venerable enclosure on this day of parliamentary return, after having been excluded, thanks to a law adopted unanimously last December, which makes the oath of allegiance to King Charles III optional.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Pascal Bérubé and Joël Arseneau thus become the first elected officials in the history of Quebec to be able to sit in Parliament having only taken an oath to the people of Quebec.
“We have a thought for all the generations of Quebecers before us who fought for these rights,” said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a press scrum. It’s a victory, because we persevered. »
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon will take advantage of his first moments in the Blue Room to table a motion asking that the National Assembly recognize “Quebec’s right to determine its own future”.
In the morning, he made a very first intervention in a parliamentary committee, as part of the study of Bill 2, which caps the increase in Hydro-Québec’s residential rates at 3%.
A “robust” legislative menu
Energy will be an important issue during the upcoming session, said Tuesday the government parliamentary leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, who speaks of a “heavy” legislative menu.
The CAQ government promises to hold a public consultation on Quebec’s energy future, which will be led by the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon.
This spring, there will also be talk of increasing water royalties and creating a Blue Fund to protect lakes and rivers.
The Minister responsible for Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, will present a new version of the bill expanding medical assistance in dying.
For his part, the Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet, wishes to legislate in order to better regulate child labor.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, plans in particular to create the Health Quebec agency, an entity separate from the ministry which would be responsible for coordinating the activities of the network.
He also undertook to table a bill to regulate private personnel agencies.
Quebec is hoping for an outcome in the health transfer file, and is pinning a lot of hope on the February 7 meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
The provinces have been calling for several months for an increase of $28 billion, in order to increase Ottawa’s share of funding for health expenditures from 22% to 35%.
Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard, who is preparing the budget he will probably present in March, hopes to soon have an idea of the growth in transfers.